20th and 21st- Century Literature: Modern and Contemporary NarrativesLaajuus (4 cr)

Objective

Learning outcomes: At the end of the course the student will - be familiar with the diversity of the socio-cultural contexts of literatures in English - recognise the changes in literary expression in modernist and postmodernist writing - comprehend and is able to apply notions of centre/periphery, dominant/Other, and the importance of concepts such as race, ethnicity, class, and gender in literary texts The course develops the following work life skills: - Language skills, knowledge of socio-cultural contexts related to specific countries, multidisciplinarity, argumentation skills, research skills, meaning-making, time management and prioritization skills, systematic thinking, managing large entities Generic competences: ethics, internationality, critical thinking, identification and development of expertise, interaction and communication

Content

The course will focus on the development of fiction in English during the 20th and 21st centuries. It starts with a discussion of a selection of central modernist texts and introduces some key themes in postmodern and postcolonial writing. The course discusses ways of reading the experimental narrative and pays attention to reading and writing between cultures.

Qualifications

2130357 Trends in Anglophone Literatures (1 ECTS) and 2130358 Anglophone Literatures: Text and Context (4 ECTS) (or 2130346 Anglophone Literatures: Cultures and Contexts)

Materials

D. H. Lawrence “The Odour of Chrysanthemums” (1914) Virginia Woolf, “The Mark on the Wall” (1917) F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1984) Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005) ca. 1000 pages

Further information

Time: Second year of study; autumn term Campus: Joensuu Further information: Language of tuition: English. The course is open to exchange students.

Execution methods

Lecture course

Accomplishment methods

Modes of study: Lectures (14 h); independent study (108 h) Evaluation criteria: Written examination (50 %) and an essay of 1800-2000 words (50 %). Both the essay and the exam are graded 0-5.